A stereotype is a generalized perception of first impressions: behaviors presumed by a group of people judging with the eyes/criticizing ones outer appearance (or a population in general) to be associated with another specific group. Stereotypes, therefore, can instigate prejudice and false assumptions about entire groups of people, including the members of different ethnic groups, social classes, religious orders, the opposite sex, etc. A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are forms of social consensus rather than individual judgments. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone.
The Society of the Spectacle is a work of philosophy and critical theory by Situationist and Marxist theorist, Guy Debord;
Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: "All that was once directly lived has become mere representation."[7] Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing."[8] This condition, according to Debord, is the "historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life."[9]
With the term spectacle, Debord defines the system that is a confluence of advanced capitalism, the mass media, and the types of governments who favor those phenomena. "... the spectacle, taken in the limited sense of "mass media" which are its most glaring superficial manifestation...".[10] The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity. "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord writes. "rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.
We developed the Dove Self-Esteem Fund to make a real change in the way women and young girls perceive and embrace beauty. We want to help free ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes.
Too many girls develop low self-esteem from hang-ups about looks. Consequently, many fail to reach their full potential later in life. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund is an agent of change to educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty.
To make change possible, the Dove Self-Esteem Fund focuses its efforts to foster positive image-related self-esteem in two areas of activity:
- The Fund develops and distributes resources that enable and empower women and girls to embrace a broad definition of beauty
- The Fund provides needed resources to organisations that foster a broader definition of beauty
